h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

why does frozen milk turn yellow?

Does it??

Slightly yellow yeah, I guess because the water freezes quicker/slower than the fats and so they seperate out a bit.

I'm sorry but 'SEx Milk' as a thread heading ? I just hope nobody tries to search for this thread on Google

bit like the league of gentlemen (white love piss)??????

From my experience of freezing milk it lessens the time you have to drink it before it goes off. I once bought some milk and froze it then defrosted when needed and it was already gone. I no longer freeze milk, bread yes, milk no.

yes i though that once i'd written it, but to be honest... it makes me giggle. like a girl. and i'm not ashamed to admit it!

Mmmmm...sex milk.

MP is basically right. Milk is a colloid - a material which consists of two different phases intermeshed in some way. In this case we are looking at an emulsion (a solid dispersed in a liquid - the solid being assorted fats and the liquid being water). When you freeze it, the water likes to crystallise and so gathers itself all together at the top of the bottle (because it also loses density as it freezes). The yellowiness is the remaining fat. If defrosted milk seems to have a short shelf life, it's probably because the fat isn't as well dispersed as once it was, and any (relatively) large bits of fat which haven't broken up and re-mixed will be excellent bacterial breeding grounds.

B

thanks for all the replies. appreciate them all.